Sunday, April 1, 2007

This article is about students challenging the legality of the 

plagiarism-catching site turnitin.com. Their complaint raises some

interesting questions about the legality of such services designed

to fight plagiarism. The main complaint here is that each paper

submitted by students is archived, which the two students in this

case claim is a violation of copyright law. Interestingly, this

case could cause ramifications at educational institutions where

the site is a popular tool among instructors worldwide. Ironically,

copyright law is intended to prevent people from using others'

original works and taking credit for them. However, these

students, who apparently did not plagiarize, may be giving

future generations of plagiarizers a helping hand by challenging

the practices of the plagiarism policing service. The two


students are suing for $150,000 for each of the six papers

published on the site. Those could turn out to be the

most rewarding classes they ever took.

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